As with many emerging markets, the Botswana market has attractively low start-up fees and a market that lacks maturity – hence potential for entrepreneurs to step in and fill these gaps. One should keep in mind that the word entrepreneur is essentially made up of two words "entre" - between and "preneur" - taker. Therefore for a successful entrepreneur, there must be gaps for improvement in the market and he must take advantage of these gaps.

One also needs to keep in mind the political context of the country where to invest in. Real Estate (acquisition) of property needs to be only made in a country of peaceful past and stable political future. An economic measure often observed is that of Africa's curse (most cited three factors for unrest) – Corrupt political leaders, Rich in natural resources and multitude of ethnicities. Although Botswana has an abundance of diamonds, it has a stable political system and relatively low number of ethnicities. Since independence Botswana has known no political unrest and has never experienced a military coup as many other African states. From a stability point of view, this is a good country to invest in.

The Real Estate market of Botswana presents such particularities. Of course there are large real estate companies already functioning in Botswana, this article looks at the untapped potential of the market – the individual whose property is not already handled by these corporations. There is a large number of such properties currently on sale via informal channels. This means persons simply advertising empty or poorly developed properties at variable and constantly fluctuating prices. In fact there seems to be no pattern.

Mantlo Real Estates, a Botswana based Real Estate venture has been created for such a purpose. The driving strategy is to have a platform – e-platform whereby sellers can subscribe to have their properties listed for a small fee. Depending on the location and price, Mantlo Real Estates could well purchase the property.

Another facet of the manifestation of the entrepreneurial environment in Botswana can be seen in the capital – Gaborone. As Gaborone has rapidly developed, the town council is fast running out of land. As any economist will tell you, prices are driven upwards by the scarcity of resources. Land and thus well-situated homes are more and more scarce. Stepping into the market and making some worthwhile acquisitions for letting or selling at a later date could be promising. Mantlo has opted for the former.

Due to the letting potential, Mantlo has created a search tool to facilitate the finding of homes via the Internet. This will professionalize the Botswana real estate management industry. Mobile applications will be the next big move in Botswana as developing countries have invested in wireless communication by skipping over the heavier and capital intensive old technologies of telephone lines.

As in the example of Mantlo, any serious business venture in real estate in Africa will need to combine local knowledge, new technologies and of course, find the market gaps and take advantage of these.